Lawrence Lessig’s March to End Corruption from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.

A special report on a 185-mile trek through the winter cold in New Hampshire, led by activist Lawrence Lessig, to raise awareness of the crippling problem of corruption in American politics.

California’s Silicon Valley is a microcosm of America’s new extremes of wealth and poverty. Business is better than it’s been in a decade. Facebook, Google and Apple have minted hundreds of new tech millionaires. But not far away, the homeless are building tent cities along a creek in the city of San Jose. Homelessness rose 20 percent in the past two years, food stamp participation is at a 10-year high, and the average income for Hispanics, who make up a quarter of the population, fell to a new low of about $19,000 a year — in a place where the average rent is $2000 a month.

In the aftermath of the tragedy in Newtown, CT, the nation’s attention has keyed in on details of that horrible event. The victims: their names, ages, and accounts of the lives they led. The suspect: speculation about his motivation and mental instability. And of course, the weapons: a Glock 10mm handgun, Sig Sauer 9mm handgun, and a .223 caliber Bushmaster AR 15 rifle. The latter of the three, an assault weapon by federal definition, has inspired some to look past the object, past its North Carolina-based manufacturer, Bushmaster, to Bushmaster’s owner, Freedom Group; then a step further to the Park Avenue based Cerberus Capital Management, the private equity firm that created and is a majority stakeholder in Freedom Group.

http://billmoyers.com/2012/12/21/citizens-hold-gun-companys-corporate-heads-accountable/

Two weeks after Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc across the Northeast, and more than a week after power returned to Lower Manhattan, many public housing residents in Brooklyn’s Coney Island were still without electricity, heat and hot water. Critically for some, many high-rise buildings still lacked elevator service, leaving the elderly and disabled stranded as many as 15 stories up. Though FEMA, the Red Cross and the city government all eventually set up shop on the ground in the low-income neighborhood, the work of reaching those trapped inside was left to passionate community activists, including church leaders, tenant organizations, a group known as Occupy Sandy, and a small related group called People’s Relief.

Lauren Feeney, producer/editor; Cameron Hickey, camera

Voter ID Laws: Who Doesn’t Have Photo ID? from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.

Now, meet two Philadelphia women at serious risk of losing their rights to vote due to Pennsylvania’s strict new voter ID laws: Laila Stones, a retired nurse working towards a culinary degree; and Ana Gonzalez, a community organizer, mother of four and grandmother of twelve. These women, and many like them, are stuck in a real-life Catch 22: You need a birth certificate to get a government-issued photo ID, but you need a photo ID to get a birth certificate. Local activists also explain the difficulty in getting such IDs.

Both Stones and Gonzalez were witnesses in the ACLU’s case against the new voter ID laws. An injunction blocking the rules may be their best hope for expressing their fundamental rights as citizens this November.

Lauren Feeney, producer/editor; Cameron Hickey, camera

‘United States of ALEC Clip’: Lisa Graves from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.